Live: Music Picks Nov. 19-25

Thursday 11.19 EMMYLOU HARRISEarlier this fall, Rosanne Cash released The List, an album of songs her father, the late-great Johnny Cash, believed to be essential contributions to the country canon. In 2008, Emmylou Harris embarked on her own quest to gather material she’d long hoped to record and laid down tracks to form All That I Intended to Be, starting with the song that set the journey in motion, “Shores of White Sand,” originally performed by Karen Brooks. Other highlights include a version of Tracy Chapman’s “All That You Have is Your Soul” and the Billy Joe Shaver’s “Old Five-and-Dimers Like Me.” Not surprisingly, Harris manages to be both passionate and composed in her treatment of the material (including an original number), demonstrating why she matters—perhaps more than ever—after all these years. Don’t miss her performance tonight with the Red Dirt Boys and opener Buddy Miller (a legend in his own right!). Kingsbury Hall, 1395 E. Presidents Circle, University of Utah, 7 p.m. All-ages. Tickets: KingsburyHall.org

Saturday 11.21 ALELA DIANE Alela Diane Menig is one of those rare individuals who manages to remain relevant while opting out of our increasingly fast-paced society, driven by shortattention spans and insatiable lust for Tweeted gossip. The Portland, Ore. resident admits she’s not very up on pop culture, instead existing and creating in a pastoral bubble similar to where she grew up in Nevada City, Calif.—home to a surprising number of new folk artists including Joanna Newsom and Alina Hardin, the latter of whom appears with Menig on Alela and Alina on a haunting limited-edition EP featuring traditional standards and a haunting cover of Townes Van Zandt’s “Rake.” Arguably, Menig’s voice, which sounds like an ancient storyteller reborn as a young, vibrant woman, is more a product of her old soul than of her surroundings. Either way, her music is beautiful and timeless. Kilby Court, 741 S. 330 West, 7 p.m. All-ages. Tickets: 24Tix. com (with Marissa Nadler)

Monday 11.23 PINK MOUNTAINTOPSWhere does Pink Mountaintops end and Black Mountain begin? Well, it depends on the track. Both of Stephen McBean’s projects journey along the vast and wonderful psychedelic spectrum, lingering in trippy, distorted, shoegaze territory. Black Mountain tend to focus more on epic, heavy/stoner rock as on their self-titled album’s “Don’t Run Our Hearts Around,” but Pink Mountaintops are hardly meek (see: “New Drug Queens”). Both bands are also equally skilled at stirring up intense, primal feelings of lust, love, hope and despair (particularly when Amber Webber, also of Lightning Dust, commands the moment). So why have two groups? Why ask why? There’s something in the water up in Canada and I want to mix some with my whiskey. It’s not enough to just soak up the magic through sound. The Urban Lounge, 241 S. 500 East, 9 p.m. Tickets: 24Tix.com (with The Black Hens)

Sap Dungeon’s new box set arrives with a chain-link padlock strapping down its silver shell and—perhaps inadvertently—protecting faint-ofheart listeners who’d rather not discover the well-crafted, high-quality terror within. LSD’s Kevin J. Cazier and Alan E. Wilson first took their passion for horror and surrealism to the studio in ’98, producing experimental sounds circling the punk/ metal/industrial/ambient stratosphere with fantastically twisted results. The limited-run release of :SPLIT contains four discs—Sickness Beneath Transparent Beauty (re-issue of LCD’s out-of-print 2002 masterpiece), Repressed Memory Therapy (DVD interview of the band & live performance videos of the band, Black Labyrinth Wonderland (All new solo material from LSD front man K.J. Cazier written and performed under the name Perception Cleanse Perception), and Remixes & Rare Tracks (taken
from each project reworked or uncovered for the first time). The latter
disc makes good use of creepy children’s voices and unsettling samples
whose desired effect, Cazier says, is best enjoyed “in a still and
quiet room with the lights down low.” Tonight’s pre-Turkey Day show
will include a raffle to win merch from performing artists and other
goodies as well. Club Vegas, 445 S. 400 West, 8 p.m. Tickets: 24Tix.com (with Lexincrypt, Black Seas of Infinity and Stem Cell Ghost)